Ah,
The mission of mercy for neighbors. Once they find out there is someone around that can fix stuff, you get a constant parade of broke and stuck things.
Ed

__________________
The three Rs: Respect for self; Respect for others; and responsibility for all your actions.

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

You are correct! This afternoon as I finished putting linseed oil on my stairs handrails a neighbor lad showed up with an old Phyllies Cigar Box under his arm. Mike asked me if I had a few minutes to spare. I took Mike into my garage, turned on the lights and went to my bench. His cigar box had ALL parts for a M1911 .45 ACP Pistol, but all the parts were in component format!

I worked slowly as I put all the parts back into a complete handgun. I am sure Mike missed a part or two, so a redo is needed down the road, IF there is a need. The story was the handgun was a grandfather's WWI gun and a friend tore it down all the way and forget how to rebuild "In Reverse Order."

The piece has a 177,xxx serial number making it a 1916 or 1917 arm worth about $2,500-$4,000, assembled. I conveyed all information to Mike.

That is interesting Adam, had almost the exact thing happen to me. Lady stopped by my store years ago. Had a towel rolled up in her hands, I could see a brown holster with a swivel top sticking out of the towel. She walks up and asks if I wanted to buy a gun, the guys in a pawn shop down the road, sent her to me. She had a disassembled brand new Colt C prefix 1911 made in 1917, in pieces in the towel, missing a barrel. But with three clips with lanyard loops, multi colored and a like new Calvary holster, never oiled. So I asked her what do you want for it. She said the guys down the road said it was worth $170, she said I will take that for it, I just reached for my wallet.

There was a gun show acquaintance in Dothan, AL that had about a million dollars worth of new, old stock, gun parts. So I got up with him, you got a new 1911 barrel, not an A1, a 1911. Yep believe I do, he goes in the back, returns in a few minutes with a barrel wrapped in original tan paper, how much, $68. Away I went with an as new 1911 commercial. Sold that gun 3 months later to a 1911 collector, he was tickled to get it and I was tickled for him to get it.....

He got a piece of history: A 1917 graduate of Yale, joined the US Army as an officer, bought the gun as part of his uniform, was on Pershing's staff as a cavalry officer, transferred to the Marine Corps at the end of the war and was assigned to the guard detail that accompanied the Kaiser when the Kaiser went into exile after the war ended.
Ed

__________________
The three Rs: Respect for self; Respect for others; and responsibility for all your actions.

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"